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In today’s competitive business landscape, achieving gender equity in the workplace is not just a moral imperative – it’s a strategic necessity.
Our Michael Page Talent Trends 2024: The Expectation Gap Report sheds light on the current state of gender equity in Japan’s workplaces, revealing both progress and persistent challenges.
Understanding these insights for hiring managers and leadership teams is crucial for creating more inclusive and equitable work environments that attract top talent and retain top performers.
The pandemic catalysed a significant shift in workplace dynamics across APAC, with flexibility emerging as a new norm.
Our talent trends 2024 report shows that professionals in Japan now consider flexible work arrangements as the second most important factor after salary when job hunting.
This change, born out of necessity during lockdowns, has become a feature of the work landscape in Japan’s compact urban environment and tech-savvy workforce.
While offering potential benefits for work-life balance, this shift also presents new challenges for gender equity in the workplace.
Gender equity focuses on fairness by providing support based on individual needs, recognising that different genders may have different starting points. In contrast, workplace gender equality means giving everyone the same rights and opportunities. Both approaches foster gender diversity, with equity ensuring individuals get what they need to succeed.
Gender stereotypes can hinder progress by reinforcing traditional roles and expectations, limiting opportunities for all genders to thrive equally in diverse environments.
Also, gender discrimination, which involves treating individuals unfairly based on their gender, creates further barriers to equal opportunities and undermines efforts to achieve both gender equity and diversity.
Together, these challenges highlight the importance of breaking down gender bias to foster a more equitable environment.
As organisations in Japan adapt to these evolving expectations, the impact on gender equity remains a critical consideration in fostering inclusive work environments.
Our data reveals a concerning picture of how women feel about workplace gender equity efforts in Japan:
The high dissatisfaction rate (40%) coupled with a large neutral segment (42%) indicates that a significant majority of women in Japan either perceive insufficient effort or lack clarity about their employers’ actions to close the gender pay gap. Only a small minority (16%) express satisfaction, highlighting a critical area for improvement.
Related: The role of salary transparency in reducing workplace inequality
With nearly half of women expressing dissatisfaction and only 29% satisfied, these figures paint a troubling picture of equity and inclusion efforts in Japanese workplaces. The high dissatisfaction rate underscores the need for more effective and visible initiatives to promote women’s equity and inclusion.
The majority dissatisfaction (52%) with female leadership representation points to a perceived lack of opportunities for women to advance to leadership positions. This suggests a significant gap between current practices and women’s expectations for gender diversity in senior management roles.
Our report also highlights significant differences in how men and women prioritise various Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) initiatives in Japan:
Both men and women in Japan prioritise preventing age discrimination, reflecting a shared concern in an ageing society. However, significant gender differences emerge in other priorities.
Women place a stronger emphasis on gender-specific issues, ranking closing the gender pay gap and promoting equity for women higher than men do. In contrast, men show a broader focus on diversity, prioritising racial and ethnic equity and leadership representation more highly than women.
Interestingly, while both genders include getting more women into leadership positions in their top five priorities, it ranks fifth for both, suggesting recognition of its importance but not as a top concern.
This alignment, however, contrasts with the overall pattern of differing priorities, highlighting the complex landscape of DE&I perceptions in Japanese workplaces.
These findings underscore the need for comprehensive DE&I strategies that address both the shared concern of age discrimination and the divergent priorities between genders. Such strategies should aim to increase awareness of gender disparities among men while also embracing a broader, intersectional approach to diversity and inclusion.
While our data reveals clear differences in how men and women prioritise DE&I initiatives, it’s crucial to recognise the role men play in advancing workplace gender equity.
The fact that closing the gender pay gap appears in men’s top five priorities, albeit at a lower rank, indicates some level of awareness and concern. At the same time, there is one other women-specific issue in men’s top priorities, “getting more women into leadership positions”, which suggests some understanding about the issue.
This discrepancy highlights the need for increased awareness and engagement among men, particularly those in leadership positions, regarding the challenges women face in the workplace.
Bridging this perception gap is essential, as men often hold positions of influence that can drive significant change in organisational policies and workplace culture.
Related: How leaders can gain better engagement with their teams
These findings have several important implications for hiring managers and leadership teams:
Bridging the gender gap in Japan’s workplaces is an ongoing process that requires sustained effort and commitment. While progress has been made, our Talent Trends 2024 report clearly shows that there’s still work to be done.
By understanding and addressing women’s perspectives on workplace equity, organisations can create more inclusive environments that attract and retain female talent, foster innovation, and improve overall performance.
The message for hiring managers and leadership teams is clear: prioritising gender equity is not just about meeting DE&I targets but creating a workplace where all employees can thrive, contribute their best, and drive the organisation forward.
Discover the latest in workforce trends in our latest Michael Page Japan Talent Trends 2024 report: The Expectation Gap. This survey report findings are based on responses from 12,940 job seekers, employees and employers across Asia Pacific, of which 1,123 are from Japan.
It covers career insights that talent leaders and hiring professionals need to know to attract and retain talent. Also, download our report or use our interactive online tool to gain deeper, up-to-date insights into the current talent market.
Read more:Why should someone be led by you?5 ways to use negative feedback to your advantage9 common mistakes hiring managers should avoid in job interviews
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